Latin Lessons: How South America Stopped Listening to the United States and Started Prospering

by Hal Weitzman

The mistakes the United States has made in Latin America—and the high price it will pay for them Could it be that for the first time in history, the United States needs Latin America more than the other way round? Since the early 1800s, the United States regarded the region as its “backyard,” but in the past decade South America’s leaders have increasingly snubbed US efforts to persuade them to adopt free-market economics and sign trade agreements. While Washington has been distracted by military campaigns elsewhere, rivals such as China, Russia, and Iran have expanded their clout in Latin America, and US influence in the region has fallen to a historic low—at the very time that the United States has become more dependent than ever on exporting to Latin America and importing its oil. Combining sharp wit and great storytelling with trenchant analysis, Hal Weitzman examines how America “lost the South” and argues that if the United States is to find a new role in a world of emerging superpowers, it must reengage with Latin America.

Genres: Nonfiction, Economics, History

288 pages, Hardcover

First published December 19, 2011

About the author

Hal Weitzman has been on the staff of the Financial Times since 2000, and is currently Chicago and Midwest correspondent. He first joined as an editor on the FT's Op-ed desk, was named Americas News Editor in 2002, and was the newspaper's Andes correspondent from 2004 to 2007. He was based in Lima but travelled extensively, reporting from Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Chile. As well as the FT, his reporting from the region also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Miami Herald, New Statesman, The Irish Times, The Australian and Jane's Foreign Report. Originally from Wales, he was educated at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard; Oriel College, Oxford; and Leeds University.

Reviews

[Nahed Elrayes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weird title. Basically an anti-Chavismo, liberal American history of South America, except every time Operation Condor should be mentioned it's six paragraphs on Evo Morales's sweater.

[Fiona · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book written by a journalist for the Financial Times on how South & Central American countries no longer respond to events/crisis by turning to the US for help. Countries like Venezuela, Ecuador & Bolivia are turning Left politically and snubbing their nose at the US. How did this happen? According to the author, it wasn't just one circumstance but several ranging from anti-colonialism to neglect by the US government.

In the final chapter, the author has suggestions for the US to become more integral with the economies of the south. He suggests opening up trade, loosening US imports on Peruvian coca tea bags, reversing the Cuban embargo, and addressing immigration issues in the US. Although these are good suggestions, I don't see them happening in the near future.

We have neighbors to our south. I know the names & countries & their cities, but not much about them. This book opened my eyes to their problems and how their governments have resolved (or tried to resolve) them.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting book, but not for the reasons promised in the title. It's focused more on the Andean states (Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru) and their roller-coaster political scenes. Weitzman did reporting for the Financial Times in these countries, and has lots of great stories to illustrate his points. He's critical of the effects of the Washington Consensus reforms (neoliberalism) that cut government services, state ownership, subsidies, but doesn't argue for an alternative.

It's more of a book to help Americans understand Latin America (especially the Andean countries), and it ends with a set of sensible principles for US policies towards the countries with which it shares the hemisphere. He suggests a middle road that departs from the extremes of ignoring Latin America on the one hand and interventions into the countries' political system on the other.

[Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Packed with dozens of well crafted stories.

It reads almost like a thriller while providing some of most cogent and accessible information on Latin America.

Definitely a must read for anybody wanting to improve their knowledge of the LatAm region or better understand social movements, inequality and how international finance really works.